Blog:Looking ahead

Looking ahead

We like dreaming. We like planning. We like asking God what’s next.

Over the past year it feels like The Oak has begun to get it’s roots down into God and into the communities where we live. We’re beginning to figure out how to bless those around us and serve our city together. There are a million ideas bubbling up from Life Groups and Missional Communities and we are excited about what might happen in this part of Leeds and Bradford.

With that in mind, we wanted to share with you in written word what we’ve begun to communicate through conversation.

Lisa and I think this autumn will be significant for us as individuals and as a church. The autumn term is often one where we’re refocused, re-energised and ready to dig deep and work hard. We’ve had some prophetic words of late that have likened this next season for us at The Oak to ‘soaring’ (like birds in the air) and we’d certainly like to do that. But to soar means to commit to the journey and commit to the climb.

There are three things we’re doing to respond to where God might be leading us:

1. Having talked with the leaders at Mosaic Church and other Churches supporting us, we are beginning to meet informally (BBQ’s and the like) with a few men and women from The Oak who seem to have character, competency and a chemistry with Lisa and I that could work in eventually forming a Leadership Team. This is a growing process that will hopefully lead to us appointing some form of leadership Team around Christmas Time.

2. We are in conversation with the incredible Dan Hockley, who has been giving The Oak a day a week on top of his normal service to work and serve the church, about coming on staff for one additional day. This will mean he will work one day as a volunteer and one day on paid staff with a specific remit of increasing our missional impact in the city.

3. We are offering a one year part-time internship at The Oak beginning September 2012. Interns will work on 1-2 projects, take part in leadership and staff training and serve at our Family Gatherings (if you’re interested please speak to me). We already have two people interested in serving us!
As you might have guessed, we’re very excited about what September holds – please pray for us. If you have any comments on the above steps that would be helpful in our decision making over the next few months, please email us.